Dakar: Team Rally Pan America stage 10 report

Today the competitors finished the 10th stage of the Dakar Rally. The
stage looped from Nema back to Nema, covering over 300km of sandy track.
TRPA's Casey McCoy loved the stage, riding for a 28th place
finish. Casey is poised to finish the...

Today the competitors finished the 10th stage of the Dakar Rally. The
stage looped from Nema back to Nema, covering over 300km of sandy track.

TRPA's Casey McCoy loved the stage, riding for a 28th place
finish. Casey is poised to finish the rally very well in Dakar. He
joined the team this year because of his steady and reliably fast
riding. At the start of the rally, Casey's main task was to
support the team's primary rider, Jonah Street. However, on the
challenging dunes stage from Er Rachidia to Ouarzazate, Jonah suffered an
engine failure, knocking him out of the rally. Casey has taken over the
role of primary rider, with the goal of netting the team a finish in
Dakar.

Jonah performed spectacularly in the first 4 stages of the rally. At the
bivouac in Oarzazate, he was in 4th place overall, less than 7 minutes
behind. He was much better off than we had planned at this stage,
prepared to charge to the front in the soft sand of Mauritania. But,
unfortunately, Jonah's bike didn't make it to that part of
the rally. The entire team is disappointed by his departure. Team
Manager Charlie Rauseo, "The bright side is that we now know that
Jonah can beat the factory racers."

Jonah's bike is being transported to Paris by the rally organizers,
and the team will dissect it in their San Francisco shop when it returns
in February. The engine was running perfectly when it left Er Rachidia
early in the morning, but mechanic Niles Follin says that Jonah was
obviously riding it very hard to keep ahead of the much larger KTM
factory 690 motorcycles.

The team's assistance crew has been very busy. Early on in the
rally, another team's assistance vehicle broke, so the team decided
to help the riders who were left without mechanics. Tim Hall withdrew in
Morocco due to injuries sustained in a crash. Klaus Pelzmann bowed out
in Mauritania due to exhaustion. But, Casey McCoy, Paul Broome, Steve
LaRoza, and Chris Jones remain in the rally, supported by the
team's two Ford F350 trucks and assistance crews.